It is well known that hot flashes are a common symptom of menopause and hot flash manifestations are suffered predominantly by women. Hot flashes are also a common side effect from the use of such pharmaceutical compounds as Tamoxifen, or other aromatase inhibitors. Men have also reported hot flashes as a result of their treatment for certain forms of cancer. There are pharmaceutical treatments, injected or taken orally, and herbal remedies and the like, available to fend off the discomfort of hot flashes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,963 describes a wrist cooler which the inventor contends offers relief for hot flash symptoms of menopause and body overheating. The wrist cooler includes pellets that are broken to provide cooling in a one-time use manner. U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,199 describes a hot and cold therapeutic pillow that contains a gel pack that may be heated in a microwave oven or cooled by freezing.
It is also known to block the stellate-ganglion by injecting a local anesthetic in the sympathetic nerve tissue of the neck to reduce the number of hot flashes and night awakenings suffered by breast cancer survivors and women experiencing extreme menopause. The stellate ganglion (or cervicothoracic ganglion or inferior cervical ganglion) is a sympathetic ganglion formed by the fusion of the inferior cervical ganglion and the first thoracic ganglion, located at the level of the C7 (7th cervical vertebrae), anterior to the transverse process of C7, anterior to the neck of the first rib, and just below the subclavian artery. Such treatments require clinical procedures.